Thoughts on Money

But consumption smoothing pays homage to an existential reality: Life itself is the ultimate scarce asset. The future is unknowable, and religiously maintaining a double-digit savings rate through the worst squalls of life is not of the utmost importance.

“conventional budgeting methods rely on restriction, discipline, and perfectionism in a way that doesn’t work for people. They ignore an important truth about money: it’s meant to be spent.”

Just because money feels stressful and anxiety-inducing now doesn’t mean it has to stay that way. If you want your money life to feel calm, spacious, and grounded — you can do that.

You get to decide what your relationship with money looks like and turn these money tasks into opportunities to infuse your relationship with money with a sense of... See more

Security is fundamentally about being able to hold and stay in the tension of uncertainty without compulsively resolving it or dispelling it.

Risk isn’t a measure of negative consequences. It’s a measure of uncertainty. And the issue with minimizing risk is that while we protect our downside, we prevent ourselves from achieving any sort of meaningful upside. In this way, risk minimization isn’t an insurance policy as much as it is a collar, and the cost of protecting our downside is the... See more

Small Planet Institute co-founder Anna Lappé once said:

“Every time you spend money, you’re casting a vote for the kind of world you want.”

This is the kind of work we do as financial advisors. We help clients lean into the tension between money and meaning. It’s not about quick answers! It’s about living with the questions long enough to align their money with what truly matters.

Owning your right to feel good about money can help you make it happen. This isn’t law of attraction, raising your vibrations or whatever. It doesn’t actually get you more money by any means. It’s about getting creative to use the system against itself and claim the good money vibes you have every right to experience.

We need to remember that the market is not the economy, and the economy is not the market. And the economy makes me very worried about food banks. Children are hungry, people are hungry. And when kids can’t eat they can’t pay attention in school, and if they can’t pay attention in school they can’t be good students; they can’t move forward in the... See more